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The author of a controversial novel about the Prophet Muhammad has postponed its UK publication.

American writer Sherry Jones has also cancelled her promotional tour next week for The Jewel of Medina.

The novel, which focuses on Muhammad’s relationship with his child bride Aisha, has been dismissed by one academic as “softcore pornography”.

A member of staff at its UK publisher in London was recently targeted in a suspected petrol bomb attack.

Three men have since been arrested and charged with conspiring to damage Martin Rynja’s home and office.

Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas, was quoted in the US media as saying the book took “sacred history” and turned it into “softcore pornography”. Baca entri selengkapnya »

The Random House Group, one of the largest general book publishing companies in the UK, has signed an agreement with international affiliate network Webgains to represent its affiliate marketing program within the UK.

The affiliate program will be for rBooks.co.uk (www.rbooks.co.uk ), the official book shop for The Random House Group. It sells over 12,000 titles and provides exclusive author information, special offers and the newly released book-browsing widget. Webgains will be promoting opportunities for other sites to host click through banners to the rbooks website.
Joy Judge, e- commerce manager for The Random House Group, said the rationale for running an affiliate program for the first time was to expand brand awareness of the rbooks website and to tap into another area of online marketing. Baca entri selengkapnya »

PARIS, Oct 16, 2008 (AFP) – British writer Salman Rushdie, who lived in hiding for years after an Islamic death threat, said Thursday that the Italian author of a book on organised crime is in far greater danger than he himself ever was.

“I met Roberto Saviano in New York in April. He’s an extremely pleasant, very intelligent man, but he’s in great danger,” he told France Info radio.

Saviano, the author of “Gomorrah,” said Wednesday he plans to flee his native Italy after learning that the Naples-area organised crime gang, the Camorra, wants him dead by the end of the year.

Rushdie said that “in April in New York, the FBI believed he was already in danger, because there is the mafia in the United States too.”

“Things are worse” for Saviano than for him, Rushdie said. “The mafia poses a much bigger problem than the one I had to face.”

Rushdie’s “Satanic Verses,” published 20 years ago, earned him an Islamic death threat and forced him to live in hiding under police protection for nearly a decade.

Some 1.2 million copies of Saviano’s book have sold in Italy.

Filmmaker Matteo Garrone‘s screen version of the book won a major prize at the Cannes film festival in May and is in the running for an Oscar.

SPOKANE, Wash. – Sherry Jones’ The Jewel of Medina reached bookstores Oct. 6 amid fears that the book about the Prophet Muhammad’s child bride might lead to violence and threats. But the author said she had received no threats and was spending the day quietly, except for talking to reporters and being photographed.Jones’ novel is about Aisha, who according to tradition was 9 when she became the wife of the Prophet Muhammad, and later a political and military leader in her own right.

LONDON Three men charged with plotting to attack the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Muhammad’s child bride made a brief court appearance Friday after being charged with plotting to damage the offices of Gibson Square publishers.

Ali Beheshti, 40, Abrar Mirza, 22, and Abbas Taj, 30, Beheshti also were charged with possession of a weapon designed or adapted for the discharge of a noxious liquid or gas – reportedly a gasoline bomb. No one was injured in the incident.

The suspects were returned to jail and their next court appearance is set for Oct. 17.

They were arrested early Sept. 27 under anti-terrorism laws, but were not charged with any terrorist offenses. Baca entri selengkapnya »

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – For 15 years Israeli Saleh Abbasi has traded books between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors, fostering a rare cultural link.

But in August Israeli authorities suddenly refused to renew his trading license because he was trading with “enemy” states Lebanon and Syria, frustrating both Abbasi’s business and the Arab and Israeli readers he has helped interest in each other’s literary traditions.

“How can the People of the Book be against books?” Abbasi asked, evoking the Jewish Bible as the first monotheistic holy text. “Books are a bridge to peace between cultures.” Baca entri selengkapnya »